Sami Khoreibi On Taking An Energy Company Public At 26, Building A Renewable Energy Business, And Developing Tech For Sustainable Drinking Water

When Sami Khoreibi took his first company public at just 26 years old, he marked the beginning of an extraordinary entrepreneurial journey. His story spans industries, continents, and cultures, offering valuable insights into building, scaling, and innovating businesses in dynamic global markets.

Sami’s latest venture, Wisewell, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like BECO Capital and Digital Rain Venture.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Sami Khoreibi’s diverse background helped him embrace open-mindedness and creativity in his entrepreneurial pursuits.
• At 26, Sami took Candax Energy public, showcasing the value of learning quickly and taking bold risks.
• Founding Enviromena, Sami identified opportunities in the nascent solar energy market in the Middle East.
• Breaking into new industries requires fluidity, as seen in Sami’s pivot from oil to renewable energy.
• By securing international venture capital, Sami bridged regional startups with global funding opportunities.
• Success at both Candax and Enviromena stemmed from assembling skilled, complementary teams.
• Sami’s bold moves, like launching the Middle East’s first solar company, demonstrate the importance of taking calculated risks.

 

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About Sami Khoreibi:

Sami Khoreibi has been an entrepreneur, investor, and leader in the sustainability and technology sectors for over 18 years, driven by a passion for creating positive impact and value through innovative solutions and partnerships.

Sami is the Founding Partner of Incubayt Investments Ltd, a platform that supports and invests in startups at the intersection of sustainability and technology. Incubayt has made over 25 investments and provides 360-degree in-house support to help founders scale their ideas.

Through his work at Incubayt, Sami is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Wisewell, a sustainable technology company disrupting how we drink and deliver water by transforming tap water into pure, fresh, and mineralized water while utilizing data to optimize water quality water and user retention.

Previous to Incubayt, Khoreibi was the Founder and CEO of Enviromena from 2007-2018, scaling the company to become the largest builder and operator of solar plants in the MENA region.

During his tenure as CEO, Sami took the company from an idea to operations in nine countries, with gross revenues of over $750 million, and led the acquisition of the business to a UK-based pension fund.

Sami has received multiple awards and recognitions for his leadership in sustainability, including being named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and a Top 5 Mid-East Innovator by MIT.

Connect with Sami Khoreibi:

• LinkedIn
• Crunchbase
• RocketReach
• Bloomberg

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: Alrighty. Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Deal Maker Show. So today, we have a really exciting founder, a founder that has done it you know a bunch of times. um you know We’re going to be talking about the building, scaling, financing, exiting you know as well. um you know In this case, he was ringing the bill, the bill you know IPOing his company at just 23 years old. And again, we’ll talk about you know how to think about ah getting you started, how to you know sch switch perhaps you know like a little bit more like the the the the problem that you’re tackling, ah how to deal with projects in the Middle East, ah also how to deal with projects also in North America. So in this case, you know there’s all types of geographic locations that our founder you know really covered. um But again, you know brace yourself for a very inspiring conversation. And without further ado, let’s welcome our guest today, Sami Kurebi. Welcome to the show.

Sami Khoreibi: Thank you, Alejandro. It’s a pleasure to be on.

Alejandro Cremades: So originally born in Saudi Arabia, but you came to Toronto quite early. So give us a walk through memory lane. How is life growing up for you?

Sami Khoreibi: ah You know, it was a very pleasant life, and you know I’m very thankful for it. So I’m born in Saudi Arabia. I’m of Palestinian descent. And at the age of three, I moved to Toronto, where I spent my formative years.

Sami Khoreibi: grew up in Toronto and in in the 80s and 90s, very safe, very comfortable city, extremely multicultural. And I think all of those different factors really did ah play a role in in my development, um getting the exposure to ah many different cultures being kind of in an education ah system and environment that ah really did promote entrepreneurship in many ways. And to be honest, it’s actually growing up in a household that really promoted entrepreneurship um

Sami Khoreibi: allowed for me not to look at it as a big deal to try to start something. um There was always that you know that enthusiasm and that support ah within my house for my parents um and then actually from the broader system to to allow to to to really take on things from a very young age.

Sami Khoreibi: in terms of trying new things, trying new companies or you know selling books on the street corner or doing those kinds of things from a very young age and and and realizing that part of it really is within kind of your DNA and and and the nurture that occurs as well.

Alejandro Cremades: What about a you know the entrepreneurship path that you took you know really early on? i mean Literally, like right after university, you got started right away. i mean where Where would you say that that entrepreneurial drive comes from for you?

Sami Khoreibi: You know, I think it was, um we call it entrepreneurial drive, but to me it was just the baseline. I grew up in, my father was an entrepreneur, um you know, on my mother’s side, my uncles, my grandparents, all ah had the entrepreneurial gene as well. And I think a lot of that was also, they moved around a lot in their life, I think based kind of on um you know their their history. And they had to start new ah a few times. And in order to do so, ah you really had to kind of build something yourself. And it was just all around me. And and and for me, entrepreneurship was just that that that expected path almost. um And you know I really did embrace it. And where it’s often viewed as a challenge or something that’s very different, for me, it seemed to be the the path that was almost written.

Alejandro Cremades: So let’s talk about that moment you know when you got started you know with the first company right out of after university. How did that happen?

Sami Khoreibi: So you know I think it was the right time and and and the right place. I graduated from university and in Ontario. um And ah shortly after, I was having a coffee with with a gentleman who ah was an old friend of of the family’s who was involved and in an incubator focused on building resource companies.

Sami Khoreibi: um We had a conversation and I was just very keen to to get involved. I thought that that that that office itself was a very entrepreneurial environment. And that um allowed for for for me to, from very early days, look at the opportunity set that was out there in terms of the resource market. ah Toronto um has always been a ah market that’s very focused on resources, the capital markets, whether it’s early stage exploration for mining, all the way through to oil and gas production,

Sami Khoreibi: Typically, within Canada, we had a very, very mature market in terms of the capital structures and and the capital flows. um And i so I said, you know, I like come from a Middle Eastern background, let’s look at some opportunities of assets in the Middle East. And through our network, we’ve identified some gas licenses in Tunisia. um And it was a very, very obvious arbitrage. The capital markets in Canada were willing to um buy these assets at a multiple than what we could acquire them for in and in in Tunisia at the time. And that was really the catalyst for the company. So my myself and a few of the co-founders, two other co-founders I should say, decided to start Candax in 2004.

Sami Khoreibi: At that point, oil was trading at around $25 a barrel. um The capital markets for resources were very active and quite hot, specifically within Toronto. And I was fresh out of university, as you said, right? A 26-year-old bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and thought, I’m going to get myself involved and into this this journey, not really knowing what was going to be ahead of me.

Sami Khoreibi: where I was very fortunate was my two partners were um well into their careers, ah very experienced entrepreneurs and within the capital markets. And that allowed for me to learn and very often be a fly on the wall, just absorbing what was being said in the room. And to be frank, very often learning on the go, you know, sit down, have a meeting, take notes, and then go actually translate what those notes meant for myself to really understand what was going on. And it was,

Sami Khoreibi: The quickest and the most in-depth, I could say, and MBA one could possibly get is is is to really get involved in that sector. and From 2004, from when we founded the company until 2006, when we IPO’d, we had a real convergence of events that really benefited what we were doing.

Sami Khoreibi: First of all, we were in a market where oil had gone from $25 a barrel to inching on $100 a barrel. um Second of all, the capital markets were getting hotter and hotter in terms of investments within resources. And and third, we were very able to build an ideal team around everything based on the experience and the network that was around ah the other founders and and myself.

Sami Khoreibi: um And that was very unique. you know I don’t think that happens every day. And so going kind of from 2004 idea, 2006 IPO, that was my first experience in in in entrepreneurship and founding a company. um And it was you know I think it was quite surreal because it all happened so fast. It kind of felt like I was taken by a tornado and then landed in in this kind of incredible experience of of of of listing a company.

Alejandro Cremades: Now, in your case, I mean, listing the company, you were 23. So ringing the bell you know around that age is quite remarkable. you know Being able to see something that at the peak you know was about 250 million of a business is really spectacular. But I guess that you know it also gives you that thing thinking of maybe like feeling out of place. no i mean how how How was that experience you know in that regard as well?

Sami Khoreibi: Look, I think you you you touched on it perfectly, Alejandro. I think yeah throughout the process, even even before the listing, in in many occasions you do have a bit of an an imposter syndrome, right? so you’re not not realizing or not Not knowing really what’s going on around you perfectly at the time and having to go back and learn. um Always being the youngest guy in the room.

Sami Khoreibi: and and and and very often ah feeling out of place because of that, right? I think the specifically the oil sector and and and the energy business at that time was kind of an an older business for lack of a better term as well in terms of who was working in it and and and and kind of the ah gates that were around it. um And you know that made me feel out of place to some extent. But at the same time, it allowed me to be this kind of unique individual in the room that was very differentiated from from my peers and my colleagues around me, which allowed me to to learn so much from each of them, whether it was on the legal side, on the capital market side, um on the general deal structures. It was just such an intense learning experience. And coming to ringing the bell and being surrounded by the bankers, the lawyers, my co-founders,

Sami Khoreibi: ah partners and investors within the deal. I did feel like I’m here, maybe I shouldn’t be here, but I am here and I was so grateful to be there and I think it really shaped how I started building things and approaching things in in future companies as well.

Alejandro Cremades: So talking about future companies eventually, you know as they say, once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. So eventually the next chapter came knocking and that was with Enviromina. So how did that you know unfold?

Alejandro Cremades: Because obviously you’re coming out from the first chapter. It sounds like it was the perfect storm, you know young, you know hungry still.

Sami Khoreibi: Mm.

Alejandro Cremades: How did the whole idea of Enviromina come to mind and and why did you think it made sense to to take that one on?

Sami Khoreibi: So in 2006, I was on um one of my business trips um for business development specifically. Our company, as I mentioned before, was was looking for assets in the Middle East, North Africa um under this i and under this the thesis of the arbitrage, being able to pick them up at lower cost than the capital markets were were giving us for them.

Sami Khoreibi: um And in 2006, I traveled to Abu Dhabi and met with what was, ah you know at that point, still a nascent mobadilla, which was the sovereign wealth fund.

Sami Khoreibi: and um When meeting with them, I was meeting specifically with their energies and utility team. I ah had a conversation with that team about understanding if they had any assets that were too small for them, or they had seen any assets that were too small for them, but would really make sense for for a company like Candax to acquire or to at least you know do some further diligence on. And they didn’t have assets of the sort, but they said, look, we are um in search of some energy entrepreneurs right now.

Sami Khoreibi: because we want to make Abu Dhabi a global epicenter for renewable energy. And at that time, there was zero renewable energy across the Middle East and North Africa. It was a very foreign concept to to have that. And as I mentioned before, I was coming from an oil and gas background. And typically, that was a kind of older market. It was less emphasis on technology and innovation and more emphasis on transactions and growth and scale. But it was ah it wasn’t a tech industry per se. And I grew up

Sami Khoreibi: obsessed with technology. I was always kind of a bit of ah a tech nerd at heart. um And I started looking into renewable energy and and solar energy specifically. And it was this beautiful marriage of technology and energy. And it was changing at such a rapid pace. So I had the conversation with with with the folks in Abu Dhabi and said, you know thank you for for the opportunity. i’m I’m going to go back to Toronto, it was January of 2006. And I’m going to think about this more. I landed in Toronto, it was 25 degrees in Abu Dhabi, minus 25 degrees when I landed in Toronto. And I thought, you know, maybe it’s an opportunity to to move to a sunny, warm place to start a solar company. And I was fortunate that my roommate and very good friend ah to this day,

Sami Khoreibi: was a solar engineer. So I asked him, you know, would you be interested in moving to Abu Dhabi where he’s never been and starting a solar company? He said, sure. We brought on board one more co-founder who is a good friend of of both of us too. And we had a great dynamic. Each one of us really had our um our talent and our approach to things, which was incredibly symbiotic.

Sami Khoreibi: and by two thousand seven By July 2007, I co-founded andviroramina We raised around $5 million dollars of seed funding at the time. we weren’t Funding was not labeled in seed or Series A or and anything along those times. we just We were able to raise some capital at a price round from from the get-go and started the first solar company in the Middle East, North Africa in 2007 in Abu Dhabi, which was you know an incredibly exciting yet incredibly daunting task.

Alejandro Cremades: So then, let’s talk about the um you know what ended up being the business model there. you know How are you guys making money with Enviromina?

Sami Khoreibi: So you know for starters, we we went there and said we want to be a solar company ah based out of Abu Dhabi focused on the Middle East region. um And to be perfectly honest with you Alejandro, we didn’t have an incredibly defined business plan because the market itself was so nascent that we had to be fluid with the direction it took.

Sami Khoreibi: So we started actually with the idea that solar lighting could be the the the correct approach to entering and and getting a foothold into the market while the policies and the larger solar projects came into play.

Sami Khoreibi: um and ah We moved and we you know brought in some demo units and hired a small team around that. And um in less than a year, we ended up receiving a ah tender to bid on the first solar plant in the Middle East, North Africa. And that was much larger than anything we had put in our predictions. And you know we were, as an internal core team,

Sami Khoreibi: um definitely going to be biting off more than we thought we could chew by going after this project. But again, being, I think, 27, and again, very new to the market and everything, we decided, you know what, let’s just do it. Let’s just go for it. Let’s bite off more than we think we can chew and make it happen. And we bid on the project. We were able to bring on board a partner that brought um a lot of the relevant experience. They were, at the time, the largest solar manufacturer in the world based out of China, accompanied by the name of SENTEC. And together in consortium, we bid on the project and we won it. And it was just, you know I think, probably one of the most exciting days of our journey and our lives being going from kind of zero and three guys and an idea to

Sami Khoreibi: um having being the signatory on a $50 million dollars contract ah to build the first solar plant in the Middle East, North Africa. But at the same time, it was also an incredibly scary thing to sign that contract because we had 10 months to figure it out. um And by figuring that out, that means build a team.

Sami Khoreibi: ensure that you could do all the financing and bonding and funding and get the first solar plant in the region delivered and installed. In a time and in Abu Dhabi in 2009 was booming on all fronts. So access to resources, contracting, housing, you name it was very, very challenging to to to do. So it was it was a real Convergence of challenges and opportunities that were, I would say to this day, the real company builder. um That’s how we established the core team. and And that’s what kind of took us to the next level as an organization. And um in 2010,

Sami Khoreibi: um We were the first recipient, I would say, of venture capital as a company out of the UAE of international venture capital. So there was no such thing as a VC ecosystem in the Middle East and the Gulf at that point, which seems like a very strange thing now because Virtually all companies and capital allocators come to the region to to try to raise capital. Back then, there was there was our backyard did not have any available capital. We as a UAE company had to go abroad to try to raise funding for our business. And so ended up with multiple road shows in the US, Canada, throughout Europe, and ended up attracting at the time the largest clean tech fund out of Europe.

Sami Khoreibi: and the largest clean tech fund out of the US. And both became significant minorities in the business. And that itself, again, we kind of went from I went from an experience of very quickly going from idea to IPO,

Sami Khoreibi: This was 2009. The capital markets had just gone through the crash. The amount of time it took to raise, um the challenges it was to to raise a much smaller amount of capital ah took almost the amount of time it took us from idea to IPO in the previous cycle. um And that was kind of my first lesson of the importance of timing and the importance of understanding when you do and you can’t have a bird in hand, make sure you do it.

Sami Khoreibi: and and you know ensure that you you you have the necessary funding to be comfortable, to to really have continuity within your business and deliver on operational success as well.

Alejandro Cremades: I mean, in this case, it ended up being you know being quite a success with Evar Amina. I mean, the company got acquired, and there was like a multiples there you know on return to the investors.

Alejandro Cremades: I guess, what was that process like? Because the last company, you did the IPO, so it was a different type of liquidity event. you know On this one, essentially, it went it went through an acquisition.

Alejandro Cremades: How was that first time you know acquisition experience for you? ah did that How did that come about?

Sami Khoreibi: you know it it was ah It was a very unique experience. So you know I think first and foremost, when we when we made our initial business plan, we had a three-year idea to get to exit. Again, so the the expectation, we were I was kind of spoiled from the first experience and in the context of expectations. Second time around, it took 11 years. um And I was the CEO of that business. So it really was myself and my co-founder’s baby.

Sami Khoreibi: um we would live, breathe, eat, sleep in Vyromina on a daily basis. And and in any ways, I felt like I was almost defining my character. um right And it was a very exciting journey as well. We built the first solar project in seven countries across the region. And and so you know pioneering time and time again in terms of enabling and and and and being really part of the the seeds of creation of multiple markets that now are very mature, that are doing gigawatts of scale um and and you know kind of being part of that foundation of it and proving with technology

Sami Khoreibi: um regulation and and coordinating with all the different bodies to get the projects over the line was was a fascinating experience. And um we were able to bring on ah Mustar, which is wholly owned by the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi at the time, as our as our largest minority shareholder as well. So we really had a dream team of shareholders in the business. And despite it taking 11 years, they sat on our board, they provided incredible advice um And they really were also a critical part of our success as an organization because we were able to go to, um you know investors that had experience in sustainability and investors that truly had in-depth understanding of our region. um And they all respected each other in a way which was extremely cohesive and also really respected the autonomy of us as the management team to go deliver and do and our thing and do our thing. They

Sami Khoreibi: There were checks and balances and all the structures that required to get things done. But ultimately, as long as we worked within those parameters, um we were able to run through walls and get projects done. And and and by the time we were acquired in 2017 by a pension fund out of the UK.

Sami Khoreibi: um We had operations in nine countries. um We had around $750 million dollars in revenue. And we were a business at scale. um and And being part of that ah from from day zero was was was incredible. um But then selling that, as you just asked, what was it like to to be acquired? Very different feelings than the listing. I think probably a function of two things. One was my time and involvement in this one was

Sami Khoreibi: with so much more depth. ah And the second thing was, once you’re acquired and you have a single shareholder, you really need to kind of answer to another strategy. Or you need to, you know, I think you’re you’re your beholden to um whatever the kind of you know investor or or acquirer really wants as their strategy, whether it’s something that you’re aligned with or not. um and I had one year of of kind of having to run the business that you know that was my baby but now had grown and and and had gone on to its own.

Sami Khoreibi: and that was ah you know I think that was a very unique experience as well. Interesting because again, as I mentioned, we went from venture capital to pension capital and understanding the ah different expectations and um attitudes of all the different kinds of investors. I knew ah at that point that um it was it was know my my core expertise and and where I want to sit again is going back to day zero and going back to day one. um So a year after the ah year after the acquisition of the business, myself and the co-founders all stepped away from business and and and I started incubating investments. um The reason I started incubating and I think one of the things I told myself right away when I started incubate was

Sami Khoreibi: I want to be an investor. I was very fortunate to have had two successful exits under my belt at that point, which enabled me to really um take a look at the opportunity of interesting early stage businesses with a focus on the region, with a focus on sustainability and technology, try to seed bright young people with big ideas um and and provide my experience to the extent that I can to help them turn their ideas into businesses and hopefully into scale-ups as well. ah And through Incubate, I’ve made around 30 investments, um have been a very active investor in many of those businesses. and

Sami Khoreibi: have really tried to to support them across multiple fronts. Seen a few exits already. We’ve seen you know some some very interesting additional funding rounds and some big successes within the portfolio since starting it in 2019.

Sami Khoreibi: um bye

Sami Khoreibi: I would invest in these businesses. I would sometimes be a bit jealous of the entrepreneurs as they were telling me about their day-to-day and about their journeys. And I couldn’t scratch the edge by just being an investor anymore. And that got me back into venture building. and in two thousand and one um We built a venture out of Incubate, which I’m effectively founding and and and being a very, very active part of the team, ah named Wisewell, which is a company that is really trying to disrupt the way we drink and deliver water. um Today, 600 billion plastic bottles are thrown out for the bottled water industry. um It is a $400 billion dollars sector growing at a 6% CAGR.

Sami Khoreibi: um And we’ve learned that it’s bad for the environment. It’s bad for our wallets because it’s expensive to drink bottled water. And over the past couple of years, we’re realizing that that’s actually bad for our health as well. um So it reminded me of kind of that perfect storm that was happening within solar energy.

Sami Khoreibi: The cost of solar went down, carbon emissions were a real issue, and people realized that, hold on, there’s a better way to build energy. um And that’s what we’re trying to do now. There’s a better way for people to drink and deliver water ah through incredibly intelligent purification systems.

Sami Khoreibi: And we’re going after a very fragmented market and trying to build something from day one, which is a scalable technology business that’s kind of a marriage of venture capital with a private equity mindset to scale and create yield and in very short order.

Alejandro Cremades: So if you were to go to sleep tonight and you wake up in a world where the vision of why Israel is fully realized, what does that world look like?

Sami Khoreibi: um There’d be a lot less plastic in landfills in the ocean, um and I’d say equally, if not more importantly, in our bodies. um People would be spending less on bottled water. There are parts of the world where ah people are spending a significant percentage of their disposable income on hydration.

Sami Khoreibi: where what is coming out of the tap in virtually every country in the world is 95% there. We need that 5% refinement at the point of consumption, at the point of use, to turn any kind of tap water into the highest quality mineralized water. And today’s technology exists. It’s a function of packaging it and you know, by effectively selling it correctly. And for whatever reason, you know, we haven’t seen many examples of that in most parts of the world. And we think yeah where this problem lies is a tremendous opportunity. um So that world would see, you know, a $200 billion dollars purification market and a much smaller bottled water market as ultimately the the use case for it declines ah further and further.

Alejandro Cremades: So now I put you into a time machine, Sami, and I bring you back in time to Canada, to Ontario, to that moment where you were graduating, let’s say, May 2003. And you’re able to have a chat with that younger self, that younger Sami that, you know, saying that, thing you know, thinking, hey, i’m I’m thinking about maybe doing something you know of my own.

Alejandro Cremades: and you’re able to show up and have a chat with that younger self, and you’re able to give that younger self one piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why, given what you know now?

Sami Khoreibi: I would tell my younger self that it’s absolutely critical to take a step back sometimes and breathe and and look at things from outside looking in. um Very often when you’re a founder and you’re with your co-founders and you’re really in the weeds within a business, you will make assumptions on behalf of other people because you’ve convinced yourself so much. You think that’s actually what the whole world thinks. And very often you need to be critical of your own views.

Sami Khoreibi: um and really ensure that you don’t get so caught up and in in the weeds of what you’re doing that you’re missing some of the other things that are going on out there. um And although we are very fortunate and we built scalable businesses across geographies and sectors, um you know the scale of that opportunity could have been bigger had my younger self-known ah that you know you don’t just want to look at what you’re doing and be the best at that. There could be some broader opportunities to go from millions to hundreds of millions or hundreds of millions to billions in terms of revenue, market cap, whatever the case may be.

Alejandro Cremades: So, Sammy, for the people that are listening, I would love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to do so?

Sami Khoreibi: So I am quite active on LinkedIn. My name is right there, so please add me. i I accept every single invitation. And then drop me a note, and I’d always be more than happy to to chat with aspiring entrepreneurs, interested investors, or people who just want to have an interesting conversation.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Well, hey, well, Sammy, thank you so much for being on the Dealmaker show today. It has been an absolute honor to have you with us.

Sami Khoreibi: The honor was mine. Alejandro, I appreciate your time.

*****

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